Announcing the special prize winners of our Festive Holiday Fabric & Wrap Quickfire Challenge! For this challenge, we were looking for winter, holiday, and Christmas themed patterns and placed images that could be used on a variety of products. We were so excited to see your fresh and festive designs. Congratulations winners!

Congratulations to the dozens of Minted artists who are featured in Better Homes and Gardens, The Today Show,ArchitecturalDigest.com, Bridal Guide, InStyle’s Facebook, and on Carly Waddell’s Instagram. Join the fun of spotting Minted artists in the press by uploading PR clips on your social media with the hashtag #mintiespotting.

Announcing the Special Prize winners of our Make a Statement Large Format Art Challenge! Our customers are looking for large scale pieces to fill an empty space, and we are excited for this potential sales opportunity for our growing art business. Congratulations winners!

Figures & Form Award
For the most interesting and eye catching photograph or drawing that displays
a human figure large scale

Minted has come a very long way since Mariam Naficy first walked the Javits Center’s pink-carpeted floors of the National Stationery Show (NSS) in 2007. As she pushed her baby daughter in a stroller, Minted was a budding, disruptive idea in the entrepreneur’s mind, one that she knew had extraordinary potential but would take time to develop.

The next year, Minted launched its first Design Challenge, a save-the-date card competition that attracted 66 entries. Fast-forward to now, 10 years later, and Minted has grown to become a booming international business, attracting thousands of Challenge submissions from its talented community of independent artists who create the designs of everything Minted produces. The Minted artist community now lives in all 50 states and more than 60 countries, and Minted products have grown from its initial offering of custom stationery to also include limited edition art, home decor, and so much more.

As the company and community have grown, so too has Minted’s presence at the National Stationery Show. This year, Minted also exhibited at ICFF, a major home furnishings show that took place simultaneously with NSS at the Javits Center.

Minted artists traveled near and far to attend the National Stationery Show and ICFF. Tanya Peng Lee of Frooted Design, a Minted artist who joined the community nine and a half years ago, traveled to New York as part of cross-country roadtrip from her home in Orange County, California, with her husband and son. “I always enjoy walking the show, but I mostly go to hang out with other Minties,” Tanya says of her fourth trip to NSS.

During the Minted Community Cocktail party on May 21, Mariam shared several monumental announcements with the community, including a forthcoming Minted artist retreat and conference in Las Vegas. “We’ve been talking about a mega Minted meetup for so long, it was almost surreal to hear Mariam’s announcement about Vegas,” Tanya says. “All the announcements were a reminder to me of how much Minted takes the community’s feedback to heart.”

Here’s a recap of four action-packed days of exhibiting new Minted designs at three booths, the annual Community Cocktail party, and the MYK artist breakfast.

The Minted Booth at NSS

A handful of examples of Minted’s evolution in innovating new products over the last decade.

The Minted gallery wall—placed atop Minted’s signature reversed books—attracted NSS show attendees seeking an up-close view of Minted Art and framing. We also debuted a glimpse of “collective,” a new art project in development.

We’re thrilled to partner with Scale Up Art, a renowned San Francisco company that works with some of the world’s biggest names in art and photography to enlarge original works. With more than 12 years experience, the company’s founders, JP Jespersen and Dylan Ozanich, have mastered museum-quality artwork capture.

About the scanning process: Scale Up Art uses a proprietary Gigapixel Artwork Scanning System to digitize artworks up to sizes larger than 3 gigabytes. Scale Up Art produces the most color-accurate and highest-resolution artwork reproductions available.

The importance of careful packaging

We cannot stress enough the importance of carefully packaging your original artwork before shipping. Even with the most trusted delivery partners, it’s difficult to control factors such as weather and shifting during transit. Keep in mind that the corners of your shipping box are most susceptible to damage. To help prevent damage and wear and tear, we worked with Scale Up Art to assemble these tips and the following step-by-step packaging process.

Top 5 “don’ts” for packaging art

1. Don’t ship wet art.Make sure your painting or artworkis completely dry before shipping, and don’t add a protective varnish. If you’ve already varnished your artwork before you read this article, wait a few days beyond the recommended drying time before shipping. If you ship the art before it’s completely dry, you risk the varnish sticking to packing materials, and it’s nearly impossible to repair the damage.

2. Don’t use cardboard as a protective barrier on the face of your artwork.Cardboard is not acid-free and could damage your artwork. Instead of cardboard, we recommend placing acid-free archival paper or glassine on top of the painting in addition to placing the artwork inside a clear plastic bag, which you could order from clearbags.com or purchase at your local art store.

With a graphic design degree from Montclair State University in hand, Sandra Picco ignited her career on the production side of things and spent many hours in press rooms before actually focusing on design. She even walked the famous halls of Vogue magazine, working as a production manager for a spell. “It was humbling but also made me question every fashion choice I ever made,” the New Jersey Minted designer says with a smirk.

Sandra Picco works on her Minted designs at home in Barnegat, New Jersey, a small shore town located on the Barnegat inlet off the coast of New Jersey. “My husband and I just built our home here and moved in about six months ago,” she says. “The best thing about this area of New Jersey is that we can be at the beach in minutes or get in the car and be in New York City or Philadelphia in under two hours.” Portraits by Born Rival Cinema.

In addition to those humbling moments, Sandra attributes much of what she learned in her early production days to her refined skills as a designer and typographer. “Ultimately, I discovered I was not cut out for magazine publishing and chose to pursue design over continuing in print production,” she says. “I did learn a lot about the inner workings of magazine publishing—and maybe a thing or two about what not to wear.”

Sandra also attributes her growth as a designer to Minted. She joined the Minted artist community of independent artists in 2010, when the company was only two years old. Eight years later, Sandra says she looks to Minted to provide room for creativity that her day job as a corporate designer doesn’t always provide. “Stationery design and being a part of the Minted community have given me reasons to push myself to take more risks and try new things creatively,” she says. “The support of the community cheering me on has also saved me from design burnout on a few occasions. It’s been pretty amazing to watch other designers, who I now call friends, grow alongside me as well.”

“Subtle Statement” save the date card by Sandra Picco

Though Sandra can’t quite put her finger on her design style, we call it “cheerful classics with a twist.” “I tend to have ‘shiny object syndrome’ when it comes to sticking to one look, but I usually favor a clean, modern aesthetic, and I love using type as the main focal point in my work,” she says.

Here Sandra talks about her creative evolution, the art of being receptive to constructive criticism, and more.

“Burst of Happy” holiday photo card by Sandra Picco

How have you continued to learn about graphic design since college?I’m going to date myself big time here, but I studied graphic design before computers were commonplace. It’s hard to even imagine that now. I was taught how to “copy and paste” the old-fashioned way—with a blade and adhesive! I didn’t really learn how to design via the computer until I started my first job after graduation, and with the pace of technology, I feel like I’ve been learning ever since. Needless to say, a lot has changed over the years, but I’m happy that I entered the field when I did because it gave me valuable insight into both worlds.

By day, Sandra works full time as a graphic designer for a small design and print company in New Jersey, where she designs everything from logos and brochures for small businesses to banners hanging in professional sports arenas. “It’s never the same from one day to the next, which keeps things interesting,” she says. “Stationery is my ‘side hustle.’”

Congratulations to the dozens of Minted artists who are featured on The Chew,The Knot,Pioneer Woman, Cosmopolitan.com, New Jersey Family, and Bobby Berk’s Instagram. Join the fun of spotting Minted artists in the press by uploading PR clips on your social media with the hashtag #mintiespotting.

One of the glorious rooms in Cosmo’s new office, featuring “Change Mind” by Nell Waters Bernegger and “Something to Say” by Sara Hicks Malone

Bethan Lumb sits in the ‘Basket of Dreams’ in Queenstown, New Zealand.

When you look at Minted artist Bethan Lumb’s body of work—clean, minimal stationery designs with carefully crafted typography—you might assume she’s been working as a graphic designer for many years. In actuality, the English artist has been a self-described steady “work in progress” who’s designed her own path.

“Golden Pines” wedding invitation by Bethan Lumb

At 18, Bethan went to Manchester School of Art to study Embroidery—which she describes as “more like fine arts and textiles”—followed by a stint at Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway. “I thought maybe I wanted to pursue a career that had something to do with printed textiles or interiors, but I wasn’t really sure,” she says in retrospect. Upon graduation in 2012, Bethan landed a job in retail. “I worked for a few different companies but most recently L’Occitane, helping to manage one of their boutiques. It’s a great company with lovely products, but I was keen to do something more creative again,” she says.

Examples of Bethan Lumb’s work while studying Embroidery (aka “fine arts and textiles”) at Manchester School of Art, and briefly at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway.

With that “keen” thought in mind, she coincidentally discovered Minted in 2014, and even with a lack of knowledge about design programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Bethan dove head-first into entering Minted’s competitions, learning as she went along. After achieving 98 wins with Minted—and with a growing creative itch needing to be scratched—Bethan decided to go back to school in 2016—this time to design school. She registered for classes at Shillington, a graphic design college with campuses around the globe.

“I’ve always enjoyed being creative, but feel like I only really started to understand design properly after going back to college,” she explains. “I love that design consists of so much more than making things look nice; it challenges you to think creatively to solve problems, consider the end user, and learn from your mistakes.”

Long story short, after graduating from design school in 2017, Bethan is now following her dream of working full time as an agency graphic designer by day in Manchester, and moonlighting as a designer for Minted by night.

Here, she shares more about her story and what she’s learning along the way.

Of all her Minted designs, Bethan’s “Watercolour Stripe” wedding invitation is the most meaningful to her because she originally designed it for her sister’s wedding. “The feeling of knowing that someone has chosen this invitation for their special day never gets old,” Bethan says.

How did you discover Minted?I honestly can’t remember where I discovered Minted—I think through a design blog. I remember seeing the design challenges and thinking, “This would be a great way to learn to use Adobe software.” I remember my first pick was in the Holiday cards, and I was so slow in Illustrator, the file prep took days! But seeing my card for sale on minted.com, and seeing people choose it as their holiday card amongst so many amazing designs was worth all the hours of work.

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After a romantic marriage proposal at her family’s lake house, Samantha Starkey and Mitchell Milner decided to plan a destination wedding in Northern California. The couple, who met during a documentary filmmaking course in India, scoured home-rental sites, hoping to find a private property that would accommodate a wedding. As chance would have it, a listing for Villa Montara—an architectural, rustic-modern home located 20 miles south of San Francisco—popped up and the couple jumped on the opportunity. And on a breezy, blue-sky afternoon in October, the couple exchanged vows in front of their 90 guests on a coastal bluff overlooking the Pacific.

How did you and Mitchell meet?Mitch and I met during a documentary filmmaking course traveling through India.

Tell us about the proposal!My family has a lake house I grew up going to in Indiana and that we still visit every summer. This particular summer Mitch was unable to go (or so I thought). I arrived at the lake house, and was immediately sent on a scavenger hunt around town. At the time, I was thinking Mitch was just sorry that he couldn’t make it and set up this fun gift for me. At the end of the scavenger hunt I found him in the middle of the lake on a floating platform decorated in lights and flowers!

Since you’re in the wedding industry yourself (Samantha is a wedding videographer), what were your main priorities in planning your own nuptials?I didn’t want to get caught up in the details, or to overdo it. I know how easy it can be to be upsold on so many things during the wedding planning process, and then suddenly realize you’ve lost the original vision. With that said, my priorities were keeping it beautiful and as simple as possible!

Did you encounter any hiccups along the way?My only advice is to not wait to the last minute for the smaller details. For example, I did my programs about a month before the wedding and the blue I picked wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I didn’t give myself time to customize it further.

How did you find your wedding venue?I originally found it on VRBO. It’s a rental house, unfortunately the owners just sold it though!

Who made your wedding dress?It was by Flora and was the second dress I tried on.

Foil-pressing has been a specialty printing method for years, but is gaining in popularity. The traditional techniques haven’t changed much since the development of this printing method in the late 1800s. Heat, pressure, metal dies, and foil film are used to stamp an impression on paper after the digital elements are printed. Though the stamping process is slightly more automated than it used to be, operators still make manual adjustments to the press to create an even impression for every design. Depending on the size of the foil area, the pressure and temperature of the metal dies may vary across designs; however, a single pressure and temperature need to be applied to each individual design.

This foil-pressed Holiday Card, “Wonderfully Merry” by Annie Mertlich of Wildfield Paper Co. is a great example of a foil-pressed design that prints well. The lettering provides a solid area for foil adhesion while maintaining a hand-drawn feel.

In order to optimize your design for the unique process of foiling, here are the top 10 insider tips to keep in mind while designing foil-pressed designs for Minted:

1. Keep in mind that foil elements may shift up to 1/32’’ (or 0.03125”) in any direction due to the nature of the foil-pressing process.

2. Thin / small foil elements should have a stroke of at least 0.25 pt stroke to ensure proper foil adhesion to the paper.

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